Corruption allegation against EC: 42 eminent citizens urge President to constitute Supreme Judicial Council
A group of 42 distinguished citizens have urged the President to constitute the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to investigate the allegations of financial irregularities, corruption and gross election-related misconduct against the present Election Commission under the leadership of Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda.
They made the request collectively through submitting a letter to President Md Abdul Hamid on December 14 to constitute the SJC under Article 96 of the constitution.
The SJC is constituted comprising the chief justice and two other senior-most judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in order to probe allegations against SC judges and other constitutional post holders and to recommend his or her removal for misconduct or incapacity.
In the letter, the eminent citizens mentioned that the EC has committed misconduct and irregularities involving Tk 2 crore for delivering speech as "special speaker", Tk 8.08 crore in recruiting staff members to the EC and three commissioners have been using three cars in violation of relevant rules.
The eminent citizens also said in the letter that the EC has committed gross misconduct and irregularities in buying and using the electronic voting machines, in holding the 11th parliamentary election, and in the elections to Dhaka north and south city corporations, and holding elections to Khulna, Gazipur, Sylhet, Barishal and Rajshahi city corporations.
They also annexed the relevant documents regarding the allegations against the EC of committing corruption and misconduct with the letter sent to the president.
The eminent citizens, who signed the letter, informed this to the media through holding a virtual press conference today.
Signatories include Dr Shahdeen Malik, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Prof Serajul Islam Chowdhury, M Hafizuddin Khan, Dr Akbar Ali Khan, Advocate Sultana Kamal, Ali Imam Mazumder, Dr Hameeda Hossain, Prof Moinul Islam, Khushi Kabir, Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar, Shahidul Alam, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Prof Anu Mohammed, Dr CR Abrar, Prof Tofail Ahmed, Prof Asif Nazrul, Dilip Sarker and Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua.